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Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold’s newest entry in the VORKOSIGAN SAGA, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, is a romp from start to finish. It’s not great literature, but it’s a great deal of fun, and I enjoyed every minute reading it.
Bujold appears to have exhausted the possibilities in Miles Vorkosigan’s life, now that he is as highly placed a government official as he can be, as well as happily married and the father of at least two children.
November 19th, 2012. Terry Weyna and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Lois McMaster Bujold | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series is absolutely noir and it reaches the darkest tones ever in the fifth book, Labyrinth. In fact, this book is unrelievedly dark, scary and suspenseful. Richardson topped herself with the fourth book in this series, Vanished; now she has topped herself yet again.
Labyrinth requires one to have read the earlier books in the series; it does not stand well by itself. In fact,
November 17th, 2012. Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Kat Richardson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Failure of Moonlight by Rosemary Edghill
Failure of Moonlight is a collection of three short stories, a novella, and a brief essay starring Bast, the snarky New York Wiccan protagonist of Rosemary Edghill’s BAST mystery series. All four of the fiction pieces have appeared elsewhere, but this is the first time they’ve been published together. Failure of Moonlight is only available currently as an e-book, costs about two dollars as I write this, and is well worth the price.
November 15th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Rosemary Edghill | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson
Set in the same world as Elantris, The Emperor’s Soul tells the story of a Forger named Shai who is called upon by the ranking bureaucrats of the Empire. The Emperor has suffered a traumatic brain injury in an assassination attempt, and rather than have him step down, which would mean a demotion in their own power, the Guardians decide that they will call on the power of a Forger, someone who can magically imprint upon objects a new identity with their magically carved seals,
November 12th, 2012. Ruth Arnell, Kat Hooper, Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 3.5, 4 | Brandon Sanderson | Audio, Hugo Award | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone was one of my favorite books last year, a sparkling, quirky gem of a fantasy. Karou, with her blue silk hair and the eyes on her palms, captivated me. The mysterious story ended darkly, but it was filled with humor and whimsy.
Days of Blood & Starlight has plenty of darkness, at least at the beginning. Karou has left Prague and her art student life and fled to Marrakesh,
November 5th, 2012. Marion Deeds and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 5 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Wizard by H. Rider Haggard
The Wizard, H. Rider Haggard’s 21st novel out of an eventual 58, was initially released as a serial in a publication called The African Review and then in its complete form in the October 29, 1896 Arrowsmith’s Christmas Annual for Boys. It was the third of four African novels that Haggard wrote from 1895-97, the others being Black Heart and White Heart,
November 2nd, 2012. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Free!, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
When Will You Rise: Stories to End the World by Mira Grant
A novella set in the universe of the NEWSFLESH TRILOGY is the first, and the longest, of the two stories that make up Mira Grant’s When Will You Rise: Stories to End the World. Anyone who hasn’t read the NEWFLESH TRILOGY is likely to be a touch lost in “Countdown,” but not entirely: it is the story of the beginning of a plague, one inadvertently engineered by scientists and activists intending to do good,
October 31st, 2012. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Mira Grant | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Father Gaetano’s Puppet Catechism by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden
There is just no way I can resist reading a novella called Father Gaetano’s Puppet Catechism, especially when it’s written by the guy who created Hellboy. As I expected, I was rewarded with just over 4 hours of constant audio entertainment.
The young priest Father Gaetano has just been assigned to a church in Sicily that has taken in children who were orphaned during World War II. The nuns love the children and are doing the best they can,
October 29th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
Red Prophet is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER, an alternate history set in a frontier America in which folk magic is real. In the first book, Seventh Son, we were introduced to the main protagonist of the series, Alvin Miller who, because he’s the seventh son of a seventh son, is a gifted healer. We meet Alvin as a baby and follow him into boyhood. At the end of the story he has a vision of a shining man who gives him moral guidance.
October 24th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Orson Scott Card | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy, and set off to save my family from impending ruin. I made it almost to the end of my front garden.
Thus begin the adventures of Katherine Ann Stephenson, also known as Kat. Kat is twelve and has a plethora of problems. Her oldest sibling, Charles, has gambled away all the family’s money and been sent home from Oxford. Her oldest sister Elissa is in love with the idea of being the tragic gothic heroine who sacrifices everything to marry and save her family from destruction.
October 24th, 2012. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 4 | Stephanie Burgis | Children | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.